But then I had the [massive] flintlock by me for protection. ¶ […] The linen-press and a chest on the top of it formed, however, a very good gun-carriage; and, thus mounted, aim could be taken out of the window at the old mare feeding in the meadow below by the brook, and a 'bead' could be drawn upon Molly, the dairymaid, kissing the fogger behind the hedge,[…].

Related to nachtmerrie (“nightmare”), a compound in which the latter component (merrie (“female horse”)) is a corruption of mare. Analogously related to the latter components in English nightmare and French cauchemar.